Therefore in 1916, the military leaders decided that the only way to win the Battle was to wear down the enemy trenches by attrition. This involved shelling and launching attacks on the enemy’s defences.
The British and French strategy for 1916were to launch a joint offensive on the German line at the river Somme. However it didn’t go to plan, because the Germans had succeeded in taking the outer forts, at Verdun, as the French were suffering greatly, they urged the British to launch their offensives on the Somme as early as possible to help relieve Verdun. Therefore instead of the offensive becoming a joint offensive, it became largely a British attack, because the French backed out and the offensive was rushed forward to June. This was when things started to go wrong.
The main aim of the Somme was to “kill as many Germans as possible” according to Rawlinson, one of the commanders of the fourth army. The British chief commander, General Haig knew they weren’t getting anywhere. So he intended on achieving a break through on the German trenches.
The Battle of the Somme began with a five day bombardment. General
When Haig advanced his troops through “No mans land” the Germans only had to fire at the walking British soldiers. The reason for this is that the British and French soldiers had cut through their barbed wired sections, so they could get through. The mistake they made was cutting the wire several days prior to their attack. This gave the Germans an indication as to where the British and French forces would walk through. This was classed as a great military tragedy, due to the number of casualties (60,000 casualties) Britain had on the first day of the Battle.
Even with the amount of casualties General Haig was not willing to give up. He realised that due to the number of casualties a major break through would be unlikely, so he settled for a long drawn out war of attrition. Haig’s aim was to maintain “steady pressure on the Battle of the Somme.” However the last chance of a break through came on the 15th of September 1916, when the British soldiers used tanks for the first time. These tanks were intended to protect the British from German gun-fire and allow the British to crush down the German’s trench system.
The Germans of course were taken by surprise by these tanks and retreated. The Germans were prepared to give up and let Britain have the title of victory. Then again the British were too slow to take advantage. As a result the Germans had ample of time to build up their own defences. Consequently by the end of the day all British tanks had broken down or were eliminated by the Germans.
